Will's Decisions In A Long Way Down

The book Long Way Down is decorated with fourteen awards from all different sources. Will is a 15 year old boy living in an urban area. His brother Shawn is shot and killed causing Will to seek revenge. While in an elevator on the way to kill his brother's killer, Will starts interacting with dead people. In Long Way Down, Will's community uses the rules to influence character decisions. The rules in Will’s community heavily influence the decisions that Will and others make, with rule #1 being no crying. Will thought, “NO.1: Crying Don’t. No matter what. Don’t.”(Reynolds 31). Will follows the rule of no crying strictly along with the rest of the men and boys in the community. This leads to crying being frowned upon and rare. Will then talks about an interaction with his father where he says, “Eye to eye, a tear streaming down his face. Just one so it ain’t really count.”(Reynolds 225). Even in an emotional situation between Will and his father, only one tear gets shed. This is a result of being told and almost trained not to cry from a young age. Although crying happens rarely, the

Will thought, “NO.2: SNITCHING Don’t. No Matter what. Don’t.”.(Reynolds 32). Snitching could save lives but is extremely frowned upon by the community, so the decision is taken away. This leaves the only decision left to keep quiet, unless rule three is followed. After Shawn is shot Will say’s, “In case you ain’t know, gunshots make everybody deaf and blind especially when they make somebody dead.(Reynolds 19). Will makes the claim that everyone follows this rule showing the community made this decision together. The power the community has over each other's decisions is shown greatly when dead people's loved ones will not snitch on their killers. The rule of no snitching has great control over the entire community's decisions as they all appear to follow